No such thing as a homeopathic dose of water

 What does that mean?

Answer: The daily double.

Flip flopping weather

No, not flip-flop weather; flip flopping weather. Meaning, it snows a bit. Stops. Temperature rises, snow melts. Temperature falls just enough - it snows again. Still no sun. This time the snow sticks, and the sun finally comes out, but oh no! It's -15 below with wind chill! So it's cold but at least there's sun. But then, it starts warming up again. Rain on the forecast for this week, actually. All the snow melts - again - and if we're unlucky, the temperature will dip once more and the melted snow will turn to dangerous ice and make transportation difficult.

Such is the flip flopping weather cycle in Toronto this year. There were, I believe, a total of two tiny snowfalls at the end of 2023, where the snow lasted at most a couple days, and then nothing until January. Without checking the stats, I'm confident that thus far this winter has been the one with the least amount of snow. Which is regrettable, because I like having a winter that feels like a winter, and despite snow shovelling being a chore, I still enjoy getting the exercise when I can.

A gentle snow is falling now at this very moment. And it's good to be grateful about the present moment. So I'm content with seeing that gentle snowfall outside my window, but knowing that it's probably going to rain tomorrow, I won't even bother shovelling anything. Oh well. Time to enjoy the snow while it's there!

Freewrite time

 It just came to me that I don't often use the simple tool of a blank page to escape by filling it up with words. Words I use to fill this place up, and even if the sentences might not make sense because they're used to fill this place up, it doesn't matter, because I'm using this as an escape. Oh, it won't last very long, I mean, writing nonstop without thinking about what to write until I actually write it down can't last very long, a few minutes at most. Can you imagine just writing for hours on end? I don't think I've ever done that.

The closest I've come to writing hours on end would be when I was writing essays in uni. But I would never write for hours on end because there was always some possible distraction in front of a screen. Opening up a new tab. Clicking a video. Reading random comments online. Browsing, essentially. A pure hour of just pure writing, I don't think I've ever done that.

I mean, it's been about 5 minutes already, and I did take a small break to listen to some of the things my housemate was saying in a nearby room. And it's part of the reason I'm writing now, so that I seem busy because dangit I just don't feel like conversing with someone right now.

The loud gum chewing is annoying me, so I will go to a different room and end my writing here.

More sad times

My cat Winnie died just before Christmas. Apparently, he had cancer but we didn't catch it until it was too late. He was my best friend since I was a teenager - over 15 years at this point - and was the nicest, friendliest cat. As soon as you would pet him, he would start purring ferociously. He was a big orange fluff ball. He loved being picked up and sat on laps, and could stay there for a long time. He never bit or scratched intentionally, and he was a joy in my life. Now he is gone. I miss him greatly. R.I.P. Winnie.

Bandaid times

It started with itchy, dry skin, the skin on my fingers. At my work, I use my hands a lot to place and replace objects, so it makes sense that it would get chafed. The simple solution that worked was just putting bandaids on the affected areas on the days that I work, and letting the skin breathe when I don't have work.

But then, I got into a bike accident. Nothing major, but on the first icy day of the year, I was biking back home from work when I took a corner a little too rapidly and my bike slipped on the road and I fell. It was a quiet residential street, but there was an SUV right at the intersection. The driver got out to see if I was okay, and thankfully I was - just a couple big bruises on my thighs and a scraped knee. It was almost 9pm, and the lady was super kind to offer me a lift home, but I was only a block away and was able to walk so I thanked her for the offer and went on my way.

A few days after the bike accident, someone in my house tested positive for COVID, and I become sick barely a day after that with milder symptoms than my housemate - just a slight fever, runny nose, sore throat and sore muscles. It was annoying, but I'm glad I'm mostly okay now.

2023 is coming to a close already. Time really does seem to go faster when you grow older.

Waterloo

 Gah. Waterloo is stuck in my head. Yeah, the song by ABBA. It's been in my head for the past week or so after it was played a couple times while at work. Can't say I know the lyrics very well, and I'm not looking them up for fear that the song will burrow even deeper in my head. So here and there, I find myself repeating Waterloo... couldn't escape if I wanted to-ooo and yeah, this song isn't escaping anywhere. It's not a bad song by any means - ABBA is always catchy - but I'd like something else, please.

Here's some bullet points of things I've been thinking about or observed:

• I saw two cats, on the same street, a few houses apart, tied up and leashed to a tree or porch in a front yard. Seems kind of sad if I'm being honest, but I guess they're getting fresh air and not cooped up indoors which I find sad as well. The cats I live with don't really go outside as much, they seem content to be indoors while the weather gets colder. And they seem happy, so to say it's sad isn't objectively true.
• I get very annoyed when drivers just skip on past an activated crosswalk light. Like, all you have to do is step off the gas pedal for a few seconds, and you can't be bothered to do that? It's just dangerous behaviour, and I actually find it safer to jay walk because I never know if cars are going to stop or not.
• The Raptors are a fun team to watch again. They had a rough start to the season, but they're actually demolishing top teams like the Bucks and Mavericks. Some players have some off days where they're not playing anywhere near their potential, but then other players step up and take over. It's fun.
• Who the hell thinks that launching a cyberattack against the Toronto Public Libraries is a good idea? Absolute scumbag behaviour - couldn't you attack corporations like Nestle or Big Oil or something instead? Libraries enhance the quality of life for so many people: from those without a home to scholars advancing human knowledge. I get that the hackers are trying to score big cash, but this kind of greed is so detrimental and is totally anti-humanist.
• I feel naked if I don't have a deck of cards to fiddle around with somewhere - either in my backpack, or on my desk, or in my room. Even if I don't touch them, just knowing that I have a lightly used deck of Bicycle playing cards lying around somewhere brings me a bit of joy.

Waterloo... toodeloo...